5000

5 years and 6 months later.  I made it to 5000 sales on Shutterstock.  Should have taken me less than year.  LOL  But I will take it.  I have 15,261 photos and 1,544 footage clips on Shutterstock.  I should have started shooting footage a lot sooner.  Footage makes up about a third of my sales as far as dollar value goes.  

My next big milestone I would like to reach in the next year or so is get my sales to $10,000 so I get the final raise on Shutterstock.  I'm earning $0.36 a photo right now.  It would go up to $0.38 for the most basic of photos.

Tomorrow is my 44th birthday so this is a nice present to reach.  Hopefully on my 45th birthday I'll be over the $10,000 mark and the 10,000th sale.   Wishful thinking I think.

Still adding photos

Still going thru my photos from my trip to Arizona and I keep finding more and more photos that I like.  I'm of course adding them to my Shutterstock portfolio and my own personal website.  Arizona is certainly a beautiful state with extremely nice people.

Lac Leamy Casino Sound of Lights

Finally got out to do some photography after taking a break.  This summer has been weird for me for photography.  I didn't really get out much this summer with the cameras.  At least it doesn't feel like it.  I've been doing a lot more video work and uploading to other micro stock agencies trying to diversify my portfolio availability.  

I think this fall, I'll be heading out more to do some more landscape and wild life photography.  I miss shooting my wolves, deer and foxes along with my Algonquin Park landscapes.

Photo & Video

Lately, I've been doing shooting a lot of video as I have had plenty of photos on the various micro stock agencies.  I'm just trying to build up my video portfolio.  It's time consuming doing both but I do love doing both.  Video clips sell for a much higher price but they are far and between what I typically sell.  I do still sell a lot of photography.  Not as much during the summer as most people are on vacations.  I'm hoping sales of both video and photos pick up again in September.

Algonquin Radio Telescope

I had the privilege of staying the night at the Algonquin Radio Telescope in Algonquin Park, Ontario which is located just a 3 hour drive west of Ottawa, Ontario - Canada.  I've been to Algonquin Park on several occasions to camp and do some nature and landscape photography in the past.  I've heard of the Algonquin Radio Telescope a few years back.  But due to life getting in the way, I never had the chance to go up there to visit.

As it turns out, I finally had the chance on the Canada Day long weekend in 2016.  This was the first time visiting the site.  I got there at about 14:00 or so and checked into the house where the researchers stay.  I roamed the area around the house overlooking Traverse Lake.  It started out a beautiful, cool day with white, puffy clouds.  It was supposed to clear out for the night and no rain was expected.  

I asked one of the resident astro-physicists if I could access the telescope site to take some pictures and at 17:15 I was able to access the telescope site.  The 46 metre dish is something to behold on first sight.  It is a gigantic dish in the forest.

I first spent about 75 minutes walking and photographing the site from various angles.  What a sight to see.  I left the sight at about 18:30 to go get ready for a nicely prepared dinner of curried chicken and rice.  We were joined by Robbie who flew all the way from Ireland to see various Canadian sites.  After dinner, Robbie, a fellow photographer and I decided that we wanted to go photograph the dish at sunset.  Again an amazing sight to see.  Especially at dusk with no clouds and no moon.  It was just an awesome experience to see the site, meet new people and get some education in the process.

If you do decide to go, bring several small children to entertain the large amounts of mosquitos, horse flies and black flies.  I mean this in all seriousness.  The bugs took 2 pints of blood from me which were quickly refilled with some much needed Irish whiskey.

Shooting panoramas

Did another walk around from where I work to the Museum of Canadian History.  This walk takes me about 90 to 120 minutes to complete as I stop along the way to take photos.  Today I decided to shoot some panoramas with my Canon EOS 6D and the Canon EF f2.8 70-200M L series lens.  I gripped the camera vertically and started shooting at 70MM.  I stitched about 8-10 vertical shots in Adobe Lightroom CC and colour corrected, removed sensor noise, corrected white balance and then posted on this blog.

I didn't get to edit many more shots as I had a few errands to run after work.  Tomorrow will be the day for editing.  Actually maybe next week as we're supposed to get sunshine till sometime next week.  I want to be outside and use my camera.  Editing is for those rainy, miserable days.

This weekend

Some people are crazy.  It's roughly plus thirty degrees celsius in Ottawa this weekend.  With the humidity, temperatures are nearing plus forty degrees celsius.  The reason I say people are crazy in Ottawa is because it's Race Weekend where people run either 2km, 5km and 10km or in some cases all three.

I was there in downtown Ottawa yesterday photographing the event.  I heard one of the announcements that they had a record number of people needing medical attention due to heat stroke and heat exhaustion.  Most of the people running wither either my age or older.  These people are going to end up with hip replacements or needing work done on their knees if not now, later in life.  But it does offer great photography.  So keep doing it you crazy people.

Shoot. Edit. Upload. Repeat.

Basically what I have been doing the past couple of weeks is shooting, editing and uploading over and over and over.  Spring finally made it into Ottawa.  Sort of.  Plenty of warmer temps and a bit of sunshine.  Got the cameras and camcorder out to shoot and video the spring in Ottawa.  Tulips are out and the trees are finally greening up from a long and cold winter.  

Hibernation is finished I think.  Finally!

International Astronomy Day 2016

The event held every year by the OAOG at the Gloucester Shopping Centre has been cancelled due to weather being bad.  Clouds and rain all day.  I was going to go to the event and photograph it but with the weather cancelling the event, I will have to make other plans.  

I will now get to catch up on stuff that I couldn't do during the week.  I have to go buy a power cord for my telescope mount and buy a book on Photoshop.  I want to get my Adobe Certified Expert certification in the next couple of months.  Although I use Lightroom for all my photo editing, Adobe has not offered the Lightroom CC certification yet.  So Photoshop CC certification here I come.

Back to Astronomy Day.  If your city has nice weather and an Astronomy event going on today, I highly suggest you go as you will learn a few things about the universe you live in.  Astronomy got me into photography.  Astronomy and photography are two amazing and amazingly expensive hobbies.  But as I always say, at least I don't spend my money and time on foolish things like alcohol and drugs.  

Time to go and enjoy the day.

Differences between the microstock sites

It's always good to make sales on multiple microstock sites.  The shots from yesterdays events on the Hill were 100% accepted on Shutterstock but not on iStockphoto.  My acceptance rate for photography lately has been at or near 100% on Shutterstock and Fotolia.  It's always good to have portfolios on different websites because they may be accepted on one but not the other.  Plus multiple sales of the same image on different sites is always nice.

Mercury transit of the Sun

So I got to shoot the Mercury transit event on Parliament Hill.   A few MP's showed up along with  Canada Astronaut/Politician Marc Garneau.  I don't usually photograph people, let alone Liberal members of Parliament but photography has no sides in politics.  I spent about an hour and a half on Parliament hill spending the time photographing the event and the people.  The event was put on by the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada (Ottawa chapter) and the federal government.  About 28 telescopes and 32 volunteers showed up for the event.

Several media outlets like the CBC, CTV News along with one or two radio stations showed up to document the event along with several photographers such as myself.  The good thing about lugging around a Canon EOS 6D and a Canon EF 70-200MM L series lens makes you look really professional.  I could get up really close to the speakers and get an unobstructed view to photograph the speakers.

After getting home from work, I uploaded all photography into Lightroom CC and finished editing fairly quickly.  I've uploaded a few of the best shots to Shutterstock, Bigstockphoto, 500px,  123RF and my website.

Hoping to have most, if not all shots accepted on the various websites.  Check back soon!

Selfie rant

Descent sales seem hard to come by.  $0.33 here and $0.33 there but where are the sales for $20 or more?  Or larger sales like $120 per file?  Or $500 for a sole picture or video?  In a tough economy where people are working 2 or more minimum part time jobs to make ends meet is a tough market to try and sell your photography in.  

With people using iPhones and Android devices to take pictures, it's harder and harder to sell quality photography.  People think they take quality photos with their phones not realizing they're using tiny sensors with tiny pixels to take their photos.  People store their photos on their devices not ever printing them.  Just share them on Facebook or Pintrest.  The online world is killing photography.  Specifically social media is killing photography.  Instant selfies.  Instant gratification.  As a society, we have devalued quality with quantity.  How many bathroom selfies can you only take?  Narcissism at its best I suppose.

People spend $200-$500 on an iPhone or an Android phone every two years to take selfies that they shoot and forget but bitch when they go to a photographer to have a proper photo taken.  Photographers spend literally thousands of dollars on equipment alone.  My Canon EOS 6D, battery grip, SD card and Canon EF 70-200MM L series lens cost roughly $5000 Canadian.  That's one camera, battery, lens and SD card.  Then there's the computer and software which cost me roughly $3000.  Adobe Photoshop and Photoshop Lightroom cost roughly $14 monthly for me to run.  Then there's the education which cost me roughly $4000.  Upgrading my education costs even more.  Learning online costs money.  Watching YouTube videos costs me time and money in a sense instead of watching a Youtube video using a different technique I could be marketing my skills and photography.  And yet people wonder why photographers charge $100 an hour or more.  You're asking a professional to make a memory for you.  Clients just tell you, you're just pressing a button and the camera does the rest.  I'm here to tell you the rest costs money.  

If you want a selfie, use an iPhone.  If you want a real photo, a real memory, something that looks professional, use a real photographer with a real camera.  Hire a real photographer!

Adobe Certified Expert Certification

No photo to go with todays blog post as this is more of a rant rather than anything else.

I've been interested in photography since I could remember.  I finally took some classes in 2010 at Algonquin College and finished the Photography Techniques certificate in 2012 all while working and dealing with cancer at the same time.  Since I beat cancer back in 2012 and cleared this year with my 5 year anniversary, I've been thinking that I honestly don't want to do the whole IT industry thing anymore.  I've been in IT since 2001.  The only certification I have is my CompTia A+ certificate along with my diploma of course. 

Since I got cancer back in 2010, it made me realize what I wanted to do with my life.  In the last 5 years, life has really been a struggle with cancer and dealing with the breakdown of my marriage and inevitable divorce.  Over the past year or two, I've been feeling the need to get out there with my cameras and follow my dreams.  It's not just dreams I think.  It's actually more than just dreams.  Something inside me is telling me to go out there and do my photography as a full time job.  I feel it in my bones.  I'm unhappy with where I am in my life.  Being newly single.  Being not where I want to be financially along with my living condition.

The only thing that ever makes me happy is when I'm out doing photography.  Doesn't matter what sort of photography it is.  One of the things that worry me is the finances of going out on my own just to do photography.  I upload and sell my photography on various micro stock sites but I don't get enough sales there to support myself financially.  I don't know if I want to work for someone else.  I've done it all my life and would like to head out on my own.  Just frighteningly scary is all.

I think by this time next year, I will be somewhere else other than Ottawa.  I want to get my Czech citizenship back so I can be a dual citizen of Canada and the Czech Republic.  One thing that I do know is I need to get my Adobe certification in Photoshop CC.  Currently I use Lightroom CC to edit all my photography.  I just need to do my certification.  I think that will be my goal in the next couple of months.  Get my Adobe certification and get out of Ottawa.  As one of my Photoshop teachers used to say a lot in class: "Who's with me?"

The Canon EOS 7D

Got this shot of a Great Grey Owl a few years ago with my trusty Canon EOS 7D and the Sigma f2.8 70-200MM.  Honestly,  I think the Canon EOS 7D is a great wildlife, sports photography camera.  On a trip to Prague, Czech Republic in June of 2013 it was the only camera that survived of the two.  My Canon EOS 6D body did not make the flight from Ottawa to Prague.  Somewhere between Ottawa and Prague, the pentaprism dislodged from it's housing and was completely useless.  So back to shooting on a cropped sensor.

Anyways, we're gonna talk about the Canon EOS 7D.  Great, great action camera.  With the version 2 of the firmware it just kicked into an awesome action camera because of the number of shots you could get within a second.  The above shot was taken with the Canon EOS 7D and the Sigma f2.8 70-200MM non OS lens.  From what I remember it was a warm day that day.  Now a March day in Canada is not warm for anyone south of the Canadian border.  I think it was maybe around -5 degrees celsius with no wind, no clouds.  Just your typical Canadian spring day.

This was one of the better days of photographing the owls.   No winter snow storm.  It's actually pretty cool to photograph these owls in a cold snow storm with the snow falling down.  It adds some drama to the shot.

In this case I got the Owl coming in to get a meal on a little mouse.  I t think after it got the mouse and went back to eat it, we left as we knew that, that was it as far as it flying as it disappeared into the woods.  I to this day still remember this being one of my happy days.  Photography always makes me happy.

Night fall.

I was supposed to meet up a with a fellow photographer friend to do some astrophotography today as we got clear skies and warm weather.  But alas, she had exams and bailed out on me.  Now, I was not going to have a few thousand dollars worth of astronomy and photography equipment with me alone in the middle of no where at night.

So at the last minute, I decided to go down to Nepean Point in downtown Ottawa to do some night photography instead.  I only stayed for about an hour and half since I had to walk back to my car which was a good half hour walk for me lugging 3 camera bodies, 3 lenses and a pretty solid tripod and head.  

In this shot I managed to get the constellation of Orion above the city of Hull, Quebec.  This shot I think worked out pretty well.  Seems I got the exposure right and managed to get a nice sky behind the bridge and city.

All images can be purchased at my website by clicking on the following link.

Mr. Grumpy

Today's blog is going to be short and sweet.  Warm temperatures.  Blue skies.  And finally photography after work.  

I went to Mud lake today which is located just off of the Ottawa river in Ottawa's west end.  I just needed some fresh air and clear my mind.  I always like going to Mud lake as there are plenty of varied wild life to watch and photograph from small birds to big birds, turtles, and small woodland animals to deer.

Since my longest lens is the Canon EF f2.8 L 70-200MM, I will be doing a lot of cropping of some of my photography since I got rid of the Sigma f5-6.3 150-500MM lens to get another Canon EOS 6D body.

On my way around the lake on the walking path I met a friend and fellow photographer.  He will remain nameless as he shoots on a competing camera line which will also remain nameless.  Now, I met my friend on a bridge which crosses some water.  From this vantage point you can shoot a lot of water fowl such as geese, ducks, musk rats, beaver and very friendly turtles who will gladly pose for you for a small fee.

I spent about two and a half hours shooting the sh*t just talking photography and various other topics.  For not being a people person that is pretty good.  As I am a solitary photographer meaning that I love going to do photography by myself most of the time so I can stop, think, take pictures as I please without any interruption.  I also like doing photography in small groups with other photographers.

Yes, this is a convoluted blog post as it's late on a Thursday night and I work early tomorrow morning.  Plus I wanted to do some astrophotography tomorrow night since I don't have to get up any time soon on Saturday and I could actually sleep in.  

By the way, have I mentioned recently that Canon rocks?

The 3rd Canon EOS 6D body and the moose

So I've been doing a lot of thinking the past couple of weeks with what I wanted to do with my photography and videography.  More specifically, what kind of photography and videography I wanted to do and what my current equipment was capable of.  Also in my thought process was what do I sell via the micro stock agencies I deal with.

Some time ago I bought a Sigma f5.0-6.3 150-500MM lens that I used to get various shots with for my wildlife photography.  I also use a Canon EF 70-200MM f2.8L II USM lens a lot as well.  I've been finding that the Canon 70-200MM far more often than any other lens just because of the build quality of said lens.  If you shoot on the Canon platform and do not use this lens because of the price, I suggest you start saving up to get this lens.  Simply the best lens out there.  Sharp, crystal clear and the colours are consistently amazing with no chromatic aberration at all or at least very, very little.  For my landscape photography I use the Canon EF 16-35MM II L USM lens along with the Canon EF L 24-70MM II USM lens.  For macro photography, I use the Canon f2.8 100MM L USM lens.  I also use the nifty fifty (Canon EF f1.8 STM).

I also shoot video for my stock agencies.  Currently I use the Canon Vixia HF R62 HD camcorder.  I had the Sony FDR AX33 4k HD camcorder.  Now, both shoot amazing video.  World class.  As much as I wanted to keep the Sony FDR AX33 4k HD camcorder, I could not sell 4k video at all.  1080p, plenty.   But of course not as many as I would like.  Sales are always good.

Today at lunch I went to my local camera shop that I always use to buy my equipment to sell some stuff and perhaps buy a new body.  A new body for me anyways.  A camera body that is.  So today at lunch I went and sold some equipment.  I sold the Sigma f5.0-6.3 150-500MM, the Sony FDR AX33 4k HD camcorder and the Sony RX100 Mark IV which by the way is an excellent pocket point and shoot camera which also shoots 4k video along with taking great pictures.  Plus it fits perfectly in the front jean pocket.

Depending on what I was going to get back for the equipment I was going to buy a cropped sensor body like the Canon EOS T6i or the Canon EOS 70D.  I was kind of hoping to get enough money back to get the Canon EOS 70D which is a steadier body with a few more features than the T6i.  Plus the T6i is an entry level camera.  Don't get me wrong, I think the Rebel series of cameras are great.  That's how I started in the photography business.  Actually I upgraded to the Canon EOS 350D from the Canon A95 which was a cool little point and shoot camera that, if I remember correctly required four double a batteries and shot at a maximum of 5MP.

Back on topic.  I had more than enough to buy the Canon EOS 70D body and battery grip.  But I was a bit short for the Canon EOS 6D.  I did a bit of budgeting for the next couple of weeks and figured, why not?  Spend less than $500 to get a full frame body.  My third Canon EOS 6D.  I got the Canon EOS 6D because I was so happy with the other two Canon EOS 6D cameras that I still use to this day to do my landscape and nature photography.

The only thing that bugs me about the Canon EOS 6D is the lack of focus points using only 11 and only 1 is cross type.  Otherwise it's an excellent camera body which works well in low light and other photographic situations.  So now I have three Canon EOS 6D bodies attached to Canon L series lenses except for the Macro and nifty fifty which are waiting for their own bodies.  Eventually I think I may get two mored bodies to finish off the set.  I also need to get a battery grip for the new addition to the Canon family as I find the body to be just a tad bit small for my hands.  The battery grip also helps when you're shooting vertical. I wonder if I can get Canon Canada to send me one for review.  Eh, Canon????

Fireworks

Fireworks are special to shoot.  I wish I could shoot more of them but they only come around a few times a year here in Ottawa.  May tow four long weekend, Canada Day and the Casino de Lac Leamy hosts a competition every year.  This year, I'll be shooting all events weather permitting.

Shooting for microstock

Shooting for stock agencies

I shoot mainly nature, wildlife and landscape photography which I sell on my own site and on a few micro stock agencies such as shutterstock.com, fotolia.com, bigstockphoto.com, istockphoto.com.  I also shoot video for shutterstock.com, fotolia.com, videoblocks.com and pond5.com.  I have attached the links below to my portfolios on each site.  For some reason, video is easier to get accepted on each site rather photography.

The equipment I use is pretty standard.  I use two Canon EOS 6D camera bodies with extra battery grips.  With those I use 64GB cards which aren’t all that fast (30MB/s and 400MB/s).  I get up to 4.5 frames in continuous shooting out of this entry level full frame Canon camera.  For lenses I use the Canon f2.8 16-35MM, f2.8 24-70MM, f2.8 70-200MM, f1.8 50MM prime focus, f2.8 100MM Macro prime focus and a Sigma f5.0-6.3 150-500MM.  These are all tact sharp lenses.  I am a huge fan of the 16-35MM and the 70-200MM.  Those two are my two favourite lenses.  I also started doing video with the Canon EOS 6D’s but I found that for wild life videography, I found DSLR cameras to be lacking.  I don’t like the layout and I find that DSLR’s are lacking in video.  So at first I bought the Canon Vixia HFR62 digital camcorder which can shoot up to 1080p at 60fps which is outstanding.  I really love this little camcorder.  It’s really compact and the video that comes out of it is really outstanding.  I also bought a Sony FDR AX33 4k camcorder.  I bought that to future proof myself as 4k is really coming into the mainstream in 2016.  For the Sony FDR-AX33 4k digital camera you will need a faster card.  I currently use a 128GB 633x card.

As far as computer equipment and software goes, you can edit your photos and videos on any decent computer.  Laptop or desktop.  For editing 4k video I’d suggest a computer made in the last 2-3 years.  And I’d go for a desktop to edit your 4k footage just for the screen size and horse power of a desktop over a laptop.  If I’m on the road somewhere and I won’t be near my Apple iMac I can still edit my photography on the go.  I can edit my video as well but I’d shoot with the Canon Vixia HFR62 which shoots 1080p 60fps.  My early 2013 Macbook Pro can’t handle the 4k footage of the Sony FDR-AX33 4k digital camcorder.  Right now shooting 1080p video is still the mainstream thing to shoot with.  Most DSLR’s still shoot 1080p at either 30fps or 60fps.  Some newer camera’s shoot 4k but they have limitations.

As far as video and photo editing software, I run on the Apple platform.  You can use either Apple or a Windows based PC.  There’s plenty of cross platform software to edit video and photography.  For video editing I use Final Cut Pro X 10.2.3 to edit my clips.  For photography, I use Adobe Photoshop Lightroom CC (Creative Cloud).  I hardly use Adobe Photoshop CC but it comes in the Creative Cloud for Photographers package that I subscribe to for $10 a month from Adobe.  You may have a different opinion on Adobe’s subscription based model.  I was using Apple’s Aperture 3 until Apple decided to abandon semi-pro and pro photographers by killing off Aperture and replacing it with Apple Photos which I believe is geared toward iPhone “photographers”.

There are plenty of application you can use to edit your photos and videos that you upload to the various micro stock sites and to your personal website.  Unfortunately you will not get rich by selling your videos and photos but if you work hard and specialize in a niche, you will make some good passive income.  As you build your portfolio on each site, you will see your sales increase.  I think in the past year, I’ve gone one day without making a sale on at least one site that I upload to.  For this reason I am not exclusive with any site.  Some sites, such as Shutterstock and Bigstockphoto do not offer exclusivity.  Fotolia and iStockphoto do offer exclusivity.  Exclusivity is great if you have a high acceptance rate and you sell a lot of photos with that one agency.  Personally, I sell more with more agencies.  If one photo doesn’t get accepted on, let’s say Shutterstock, but gets accepted on Fotolia and sells there, more money for me.

Diversification is key.  Mind you, I shoot mainly wildlife, landscape and nature photography.  I’ve recently entered the videography field as well capturing mainly wildlife, landscape and nature videos.  I’ve been only doing it for maybe three to four months and have made a few sales on the various micro stock agencies.  Depending on if you’re going to shoot in 1080p @ 60fps or at 4k, a fast computer is key.  For 1080p, a reasonably new laptop with an SSD drive and lots of RAM will do.  I work on an early 2013 Macbook Pro using Final Cut Pro X.  If I’m shooting 4k footage, I edit on my late 2015 iMac with a 5k display with 32GB of RAM.  I should upgrade the RAM to 64GB as 4k footage is a resource hog.  Extremely large files do to it being 4k which is 4 times the size of 1080p.

If you asked me when I was going to school for photography if I would end up shooting photography and video footage, I’d call you a crazy loon.  I did not like shooting video footage.  To this day I still hate being “on camera” as they say.  I prefer being behind the camera and camcorder to this day.

There are at least two tiers of micro stock agencies.  Agencies such as Fotolia, Getty Images, Shutterstock, Pond5 are the top tier.  At least for me as far as sales go.  Agencies such as 123RF.com, dreamstime.com and canstockphoto.com are the bottom rung agencies.  You may sell better on the bottom rung agencies but may do better with the top tier agencies.  That being said, it’s difficult to get onto Getty Images, Shutterstock and Fotolia.  I’ve had pretty good success with Shutterstock and Fotolia as far as sales go.  Bigstockphoto and iStockphoto are pretty good and consistent as well.  You will need a larger portfolio on Bigstockphoto and iStockphoto to get consistent sales.  Like I stated earlier, I’ve only started doing video footage so my choice of footage is small.  Pond5 seems to be the place to go to sell your footage.  Currently, there is a huge waiting period for your footage to be curated.  Meaning someone taking a look at your footage and accepting it onto the Pond5 platform.  I’ve also been submitting my footage to videoblocks.com with a small portfolio there as well.

I have been thinking a lot lately about shooting 4k video and 1080p video.  Currently I have only sold 1080p video shot with either my 1080p or 4k camcorder.  Since 99.9999% of the people on the internet still use 1080p monitors or slightly above like the Apple monitors, is shooting 4k video worth it.  One hundred percent of my stock footage is being seen on the internet.  So the question is: Do I or you need a 4k camcorder?  Currently I am thinking the prevailing answer is no.  My current Macbook Pro display is 2880 by 1800 which is better than 1080p.  1080p video appears fine on my display.  Processing 1080p video on my early 2013 Macbook Pro is good.  The laptop does generate some heat when first processing video in Final Cut Pro X but only for a short period of time.  One minute clips are processed quickly and easily.  

So if you know of someone who wants to buy a late 2015 5k iMac upgraded to 32GB of RAM, 1TB hard drive, 2GB video card or a Sony FDR-AX33 4k camcorder, let me know.  We can work out a deal.